Saturday, June 2, 2012

Due to unforeseen complications, computer game developer
Felony Fun has delayed the release of its newest game, Angry Jailbirds. Just
like the popular and addictive game it’s based on, the mission in this
prison-themed version is to wage war on a group of unruly pigs. But instead of
comical cartoon figures, the birds in Angry Jailbirds were modeled after famous
prison inmates.

Similar to the original game, each bird has its own special
abilities. The Unabomber bird, for example, mails packages to the pigs which
explode when they’re opened. After the Son of Sam bird kills a pig, he feigns
innocence and claims that demonic voices in his head ordered him to do it. And
while the Charles Manson bird doesn’t attack pigs himself, he has the power to
brainwash other birds who then terrorize the pigs for him.

Despite high expectations for the game, Felony Fun has gone
back to the drawing board after several unexpected bugs appeared in the software.
“We’re finding glitches we never expected,” said a company spokesman. “Like,
instead of attacking the pigs, the Sirhan Sirhan bird just goes into this long,
rambling speech about politics. And after the followers of the Charles Manson
bird make a successful attack, they sometimes scribble “Piggies” or “Death to
Pigs” on the walls in cartoon blood. Things like that slow down game play and
detract from the spirit of fun.”

While fixing these problems might be a challenge, the ones
that popped up in earlier versions of the game were far worse. During the first
round of test play, the game crashed constantly because all the characters tried to file appeals at the same time.